History of Cliveden’s tenacious women revealed in new book

History books can sometimes be a little dry, skimming over the juicy and salacious details in favour of the rather mundane.

But a new book which documents the lives of the remarkable women who shaped Cliveden House does the precise opposite.

The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power and Intrigue PNL-150626-095714001

Written by journalist Natalie Livingstone, it is a labour of love, devised when her husband Ian purchased the lease to run part of the historic property as a hotel.

Spanning over 300 years the book, entitled The Mistresses of Cliveden, exposes the house as an ‘emblem of elite misbehaviour and intrigue’.

Cliveden House was built in the reign of Charles II by the Duke of Buckingham.

The primary purpose of the home was for the Duke to conduct a scandalous affair with ambitious courtesan Anna-Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury.

Author Natalie Livingstone

During the home’s 1960s period 300 years later, it served as the stage for scandal once again.

This time the pool area would be the site of the very first meeting of Christine Keeler and John Profumo, which would result in a scandal which rocked he public’s faith in the establishment.

In the years between both scandals, Cliveden was home to a string of tenacious women – all of whom made their mark on the society in which they lived.

One of these woman was Nancy Astor, the first woman to take a seat in parliament, another Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, a society hostess who turned political campaigner. And Mrs Livingstone says that writing the book has unearthed vital parts of these stories for the first time.

She said: “There were so many surprises when I did the research.

“Stories that appeared to be a fait accompli at first were challenged when I looked at all the resources.

“In the case of Anna Maria, in previous history books her story has been told as a straight forward morality tale of a voracious woman who abandoned her children.